Man who may have betrayed Anne Frank to Nazis named, researchers say

The one that might have betrayed Anne Frank and her household to the Nazis greater than 75 years in the past has been recognized by a crew of chilly case investigators.

The researchers consider Arnold van den Bergh, a distinguished Jewish notary in Amsterdam, revealed the Franks’ secret annex hiding place to the Germans with the intention to save his family from sure demise.

The Franks and 4 different Jews had been found by the Nazis in August 1944 after hiding within the annex, reached by a secret staircase hidden behind a bookcase, for 2 years.

The household was deported to focus camps and solely Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived. The 15-year-old Anne and her sister, Margot, died within the Bergen-Belsen focus camp.

The diary the teenager wrote whereas in hiding was recovered by her dad and revealed after the Holocaust. It has since been translated into greater than 70 languages, turning into an emblem of hope and resilience and capturing the eye of hundreds of thousands across the globe.

Arnold Van den Bergh (circled) was a member of Amsterdam’s Jewish Council and has lately been named as the person who might have betrayed Anne Frank and her household to Nazi forces.

CBS

Anne Frank hid along with her household and 4 others from Nazi forces for almost two years in a room behind a bookcase.

Anne Frank Fonds/Anne Frank Home through Getty Pictures

However the id of who gave up the younger lady and her household to the Nazis remained a thriller for many years, regardless of earlier investigations.

Filmmaker Thijs Bayens had the thought to place collectively a analysis crew, led by retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke, to take one other take a look at the case.

The chilly case crew, comprised of round 20 historians, criminologists and information specialists, spent six years poring over information, utilizing fashionable investigative strategies reminiscent of pc algorithms to assist them discover a suspect.

A typed copy of an nameless word that was obtained by Otto Frank after the warfare with handwritten notes by an investigator.

CBS

Investigator Vince Pankoke is a retired FBI agent and led the crew investigating the Franks’ betrayal.

CBS

“We now have investigated over 30 suspects in 20 completely different eventualities, leaving one state of affairs we wish to check with because the almost definitely state of affairs,” Bayens stated.

He burdened that “we don’t have 100% certainty,” telling the Related Press on Monday that “there isn't a smoking gun as a result of betrayal is circumstantial.”

The essential piece of recent proof was a typed, nameless word delivered to Otto Frank after World Conflict II that named Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, as the one who ratted out the household to German occupiers, researchers stated.

The passage to the key annex is seen on the renovated Anne Frank Home Museum in Amsterdam.

AP

The word, present in an outdated post-war investigation file, stated Van den Bergh had entry to addresses the place Jews had been hiding as a member of Amsterdam’s wartime Jewish Council, and alleged he fed the data to the Nazis to avoid wasting his family.

Investigators stated Otto had been conscious of the word however selected by no means to disclose its existence, probably out of concern it will result in extra anti-Semitism.

“Maybe he simply felt that if I carry this up once more … it’ll solely stoke the fires additional,” Pankoke advised CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an episode aired Sunday.

“However we've to needless to say the truth that [Van den Bergh] was Jewish simply meant that he was positioned into an untenable place by the Nazis to do one thing to avoid wasting his life.”

Researchers have stated they've primarily based their conclusion on a letter that Otto Frank obtained claiming Arnold Van den Bergh was the one who ratted them out.

The crew stated it struggled with the likelihood that the betrayer was one other Jewish individual, but in addition discovered it provided perception into how the atrocities of the Nazi regime introduced individuals to the determined level of turning on one another.

“We went in search of a perpetrator and we discovered a sufferer,” Bayens stated.

The Anne Frank Home museum, which gave the investigators entry to its archive, welcomed the “fascinating speculation” however stated it deserves “additional analysis.”

“I don’t assume we will say that a thriller has been solved now. I feel it’s an fascinating principle that the crew got here up with,” stated museum director Ronald Leopold.

“I feel they provide you with loads of fascinating data, however I additionally assume there are nonetheless many lacking items of the puzzle. And people items have to be additional investigated with the intention to see how we will worth this new principle.”

With Submit wires